Practice and feedback is the key to CLASS® success. Even the most experienced certified CLASS Observers need practice and feedback to make sure their classroom observations remain fair and accurate. The best way to provide this is to use our Calibration product. Calibration protects your investment in reliable data collection.
Online Calibrations are available for Certified CLASS observers at all 6 CLASS levels. When you purchase an individual calibration, you’ll receive a video to watch and code on your myTeachstone dashboard. After submitting your codes, you’ll get an automated score report and a prerecorded webinar discussing the master codes.
Observers who conduct large numbers of observations need to calibrate regularly to prevent coder drift. Drift happens when your experiences in the field and personal biases cause your codes to gradually become less reliable over time. If you calibrate regularly, it will be easier to stay objective and ensure you stay reliable in between recertification tests.
You can use individual calibration to refocus your CLASS lens. Many CLASS observers conduct a few batches of observations each year rather than observing consistently throughout the year. If you aren’t observing regularly, Teachstone recommends calibrating before each set of observations you conduct in order to get back in the CLASS mindset. If you code multiple CLASS levels, calibration can be especially helpful. Calibrating regularly on each CLASS level you observe will help you keep each of your CLASS lenses distinct and keep you attuned to the nuances of each tool.
Individual CLASS calibrations are a great way to deepen your CLASS knowledge and hone your coding skills. Calibration videos are chosen to challenge experienced CLASS Observers. They feature a range of common challenges, such as balancing multiple teachers’ interactions and observing unusual classroom activities. Once you submit your codes and receive a score report, you can review the video as many times as you want during your access window. When you watch the prerecorded webinar, you’ll receive a detailed justification of each master code and a discussion of some key coding challenges in the video.
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We know that one of the most important factors in children and adolescents' success in school is the quality of their teachers—and specifically the effectiveness of the daily interactions that support students' social and academic learning. Today more than ever, teachers need time to learn and reflect on their own professional practice.
But too often professional learning experiences are ‘sit and get’ presentations and disconnected from teachers' daily practice. And many research based professional learning programs have failed to demonstrate impact at large scale because they are often highly resource intensive and do not fit well into schools professional learning plans.
Teachstone recently hosted the Do Learning Environments Make a Big Difference? webinar with Sara Schodt, Impact Program Manager at Teachstone, and Ross Harold, Senior Director of the Early Childhood Assessment and Early Childhood Health Office at the New York City Department of Education.
Our hosts shared how Teachstone’s CLASS Environment™ can be used as a means of supporting meaningful teacher-child interactions, which are strong predictors of future learning and development.
IIn our recent webinar, Making the Move to CLASS® 2nd Edition, we shared how programs and individuals can begin to experience and use the enhanced Pre-K–3rd CLASS tool. Certified CLASS observers play a critical role in helping every child reach their full potential.
Without reliable and valid data on the quality of educator-child interactions, programs and educators would not have the actionable insights they need to make continuous quality improvements in the areas that matter the most for children.
Last month we hosted a webinar, A Closer Look at CLASS 2nd Edition. And, we were blown away from the responses and excitement to the enhancements. As with any big news, there were also questions. We’re tackling your top asked questions below, and look forward to continuing sharing more updates and insights around CLASS 2nd Edition in the coming weeks.